ptg16476052694 LESSON 25: Search Engines and SEO
Keywords used to be thought of as the most important part of SEO. There were hundreds
of sites dedicated to figuring out the “best” keywords and teaching you how to optimize
your pages for specific keywords and keyword phrases. While it’s true that keywords are
at the heart of the search process, they are no longer the primary thing you should focus
on. Instead, focus on creating great content, as you’ll learn in the next section.Creating Content for Customers Is the Best SEO
The first and best thing you can do to i mprove your site’s rankings in search engines is to
create and continually update content. Google and other search engines want to have the
best content possible to show to their customers, so your pages should contain relevant,
useful information about whatever they are covering. The sites that consistently rank well
in search engines all have some things in common:
n They are easy to use. This means that both people and search robots won’t have
any problem finding their way around the sites or any difficulty understanding what
the site is about.
n They are concise, yet actionable. In other words, you should make your pages as
long as they need to be to cover the topic at hand, but no longer. A wordy page that
blathers on at length about nothing is not going to be as useful as a short, 500-word
explanation of the topic. But don’t let that word-count number be your metric. If
you need 5,000 words to cover the topic, use all of them. Just make sure that they
all count for something.
n They use modern web design practices. This means they use HTML5 and CSS3.
They are standards compliant and accessible. They are everything you’ve learned to
create by reading this book.
n They provide high-quality content. This should be self-explanatory, but it includes
having few or no typos, correct spelling and grammar, and above all being factually
accurate.When you’re thinking about SEO, think on a page level rather than on a site level. For
the most part, it’s nearly impossible for a site these days to optimize its home page for
any keywords other than its company name. Instead of worrying that your dog groomer
home page isn’t ranking well for the phrase “dog grooming,” you should start building
content (if you haven’t already) around topics related to dog grooming. Write an article
about your favorite breeds to groom—even one page per breed, if you have enough inter-
esting things to say. Write reviews of dog shampoos and the best leashes. Post editorials
on why dogs are better than cats. Then when people come to read your how-to on remov-
ing skunk smell from dog paws, they will stay to learn that you offer full-service groom-
ing as well.